Revit Material Libraries

[Haden]

Does anyone know of any shared downloadable material libraries for Revit? I'm talking about not just Accurender textures, but the actual named Revit materials, with cut pattern, surface pattern, and shading color, (as well as a mapping to a texture if possible). I looked on Revitcity.com, but they only had a category for .mlib files, which was empty when I searched it.

It would also be nice if we (the industry) had some kind of generalized naming system for Revit materials. I know this is probably one of the tasks of the NBIMS group, but I found no status report on their website at this point. Obviously, the materials included in Revit out-of-the-box do not have the most coherent and consistent naming system.

[Gadget Man]

... It would also be nice if we (the industry) had some kind of generalized naming system for Revit materials...

I don't think this would be possible or practical. How many same things are called something different in different countries or even regions of a country? Whose naming convention would be more correct and why? Which one to adopt and on what basis?

I, for one, wouldn't like to have imposed on me any american convention on anything. Not because I have something against America but because we do it here differently to whatever I ever saw coming from the USA. That's one of the reasons why I don't use standard out-of-the-box Revit libraries.

[rjcrowther]

I don't think this would be possible or practical. How many same things are called something different in different countries or even regions of a country? Whose naming convention would be more correct and why? Which one to adopt and on what basis?

I, for one, wouldn't like to have imposed on me any american convention on anything. Not because I have something against America but because we do it here differently to whatever I ever saw coming from the USA. That's one of the reasons why I don't use standard out-of-the-box Revit libraries.

Ditto.

I think this sort of thing requires your own graphical standards and conventions applied. A naming system may stick but this is an industry where people like to be individuals.

Rob

[Haden]

I don't think this would be possible or practical. ... Whose naming convention would be more correct and why? Which one to adopt and on what basis?...
That's one of the reasons why I don't use standard out-of-the-box Revit libraries.
I guess one point that I am making is that we all get a de-facto standard when we buy Revit, and regardless of how useful any of the family libraries or materials are, it only makes sense for a group who can look at the big picture to help in establishing this as a starting point.

Even though I feel that AutoCAD and its layers is now somewhat obselete for architects, the National CAD Standard Committee did succeed in enacting a way to name layers that still sticks in this country to some degree. I think that's part of the purpose of the National BIM Standard here in the US. I don't know how commonly used ISO is around the globe, but I have absolutely no objection to Australia having its own version of the NCS NBS, or anything else, which again can be at least a point of departure for all who like being individuals, and should never be "forced" to "conform." I personally modifed the NCS for my own use in AutoCAD, adding another field to the naming convention that I used to filter various layers in each xref.

Again, I think standards are a starting point. If you try, you can always boil down a system into its functional requirements, and some of the elements of that system really can be decided by anyone who understands those functions. I don't really care if the standard name for a stair layer is A-FLOR-STRS or A-FLOOR-STAIR, as long as I can use it in a consistent and functional way.

Please don't take my comments as a desire to strong-arm anyone into conformity, especially with respect to participants outside of the U.S. No national disrespect was intended. I am just excited that we can all talk here in such a great format as the AUGI Forums, especially becuase of the inevitable but rich variety of opinions expressed.:).

[aaronrumple]

It would also be nice if we (the industry) had some kind of generalized naming system for Revit materials. I know this is probably one of the tasks of the NBIMS group, but I found no status report on their website at this point. Obviously, the materials included in Revit out-of-the-box do not have the most coherent and consistent naming system.

It sure would be nice to have an industry standard. I've adopted a MasterFormat 2004 for our standards. I think this will be more of an issue as specification software gets more tightly integrated with Revit. We're already looking at that.

[Alex Page]

It sure would be nice to have an industry standard. I've adopted a MasterFormat 2004 for our standards. I think this will be more of an issue as specification software gets more tightly integrated with Revit. We're already looking at that.

Crikey, Id give my left arm for that material library:shock:!...well maybe my left pinkie.:)

[rjcrowther]

It sure would be nice to have an industry standard. I've adopted a MasterFormat 2004 for our standards. I think this will be more of an issue as specification software gets more tightly integrated with Revit. We're already looking at that.

What a good idea.

I will put that on my list of Revit Jobs to do.....Just hpoe we don't have a Master Format 2008 come along.

[cphubb]

I guess one point that I am making is that we all get a de-facto standard when we buy Revit, and regardless of how useful any of the family libraries or materials are, it only makes sense for a group who can look at the big picture to help in establishing this as a starting point.

Even though I feel that AutoCAD and its layers is now somewhat obselete for architects, the National CAD Standard Committee did succeed in enacting a way to name layers that still sticks in this country to some degree. I think that's part of the purpose of the National BIM Standard here in the US. I don't know how commonly used ISO is around the globe, but I have absolutely no objection to Australia having its own version of the NCS NBS, or anything else, which again can be at least a point of departure for all who like being individuals, and should never be "forced" to "conform." I personally modifed the NCS for my own use in AutoCAD, adding another field to the naming convention that I used to filter various layers in each xref.

Again, I think standards are a starting point. If you try, you can always boil down a system into its functional requirements, and some of the elements of that system really can be decided by anyone who understands those functions. I don't really care if the standard name for a stair layer is A-FLOR-STRS or A-FLOOR-STAIR, as long as I can use it in a consistent and functional way.

Please don't take my comments as a desire to strong-arm anyone into conformity, especially with respect to participants outside of the U.S. No national disrespect was intended. I am just excited that we can all talk here in such a great format as the AUGI Forums, especially becuase of the inevitable but rich variety of opinions expressed.:).


Check out OmniClass. NBIMS is based on IFC (International Foundation Classes) which are a subset of OmniClass. Materials are described in the OmniClass tables. Also note the new CSI Uniformat is a subset of Omniclass and many of the materials are described there. Check out table 41 for materials.

Revit does not really have a method of organizing the materials around any format let alone OnmiClass. However a few prefix numbers will make the process easier. It can also be applied to family organization and keynoting.

Chris Hubbard
Quarry Group Inc.
NBIMS Consensus and Testing Team Committee
Process Sub-Committee Coordinator

[aaronrumple]

Check out OmniClass.

Darn - How could I have forgoten Krypton....

Interesting. The fracture between products and materials may work well for a database, but doesn't tie in well with current practice and specifications. Have to look it over in more detail...

[pmccord]

Hadens I might be misunderstanding what you want, but I set up a material library for our office with a naming system. Our naming system goes by section, material and then pattern. i.e. Masonry-Brick-Running or Masonry-CMU-Standard. In order to communicate all of our materials I created a drawing with all the materials set up as fill patterns and printed it out. We are very new to this and have not created these in a material list, I'm thinking that will happen as we move along, but I will pass along the drawings with the fill patterns, maybe it will be helpful to you.

The drawing is broken down into drafting views by drafting patterns and model patterns. The information to the side of the fill patterns is: Material (what it is), Fill Pattern (what it should be named in the material list), Pattern Name (the name Revit or AutoCadd gave it), Location (the file that it came from) and sometimes Import Scale (the scale to set it when you bring it in).

Hope it helps.

[arc.vnn]

Hadens I might be misunderstanding what you want, but I set up a material library for our office with a naming system. Our naming system goes by section, material and then pattern. i.e. Masonry-Brick-Running or Masonry-CMU-Standard. In order to communicate all of our materials I created a drawing with all the materials set up as fill patterns and printed it out. We are very new to this and have not created these in a material list, I'm thinking that will happen as we move along, but I will pass along the drawings with the fill patterns, maybe it will be helpful to you.

The drawing is broken down into drafting views by drafting patterns and model patterns. The information to the side of the fill patterns is: Material (what it is), Fill Pattern (what it should be named in the material list), Pattern Name (the name Revit or AutoCadd gave it), Location (the file that it came from) and sometimes Import Scale (the scale to set it when you bring it in).

Hope it helps.
thanks . thanks..................................

[bt1138]

Hadens I might be misunderstanding what you want, but I set up a material library for our office with a naming system. Our naming system goes by section, material and then pattern. i.e. Masonry-Brick-Running or Masonry-CMU-Standard. In order to communicate all of our materials I created a drawing with all the materials set up as fill patterns and printed it out. We are very new to this and have not created these in a material list, I'm thinking that will happen as we move along, but I will pass along the drawings with the fill patterns, maybe it will be helpful to you.

The drawing is broken down into drafting views by drafting patterns and model patterns. The information to the side of the fill patterns is: Material (what it is), Fill Pattern (what it should be named in the material list), Pattern Name (the name Revit or AutoCadd gave it), Location (the file that it came from) and sometimes Import Scale (the scale to set it when you bring it in).

Hope it helps.

That's a very nice piece of work, thank you for sharing. It beats me why that kind of thing does not ship with the product out of the box.

[DBowkett]

It sure would be nice to have an industry standard. I've adopted a MasterFormat 2004 for our standards. I think this will be more of an issue as specification software gets more tightly integrated with Revit. We're already looking at that.
I'd love to get my hands of that material library as well. This is exactly what I'm looking for. Any chance of that happening?

Cheers,

[twiceroadsfool]

Aarons (the other one) approach is a great one. ours is very similar, but by Material use instead of by spec. Id prefer the spec method, as he has shown.

[cbaze]

Revit materials should eventally reflect real world materials, down to the chemical composition. The periodic table of elements is the one truely universal standard we have to describe materials. For now we use Masterformat 2004 numbers with a decimal extension for various finishes. It's a shame that you still have to define material thickness in both the material list and the family.

[j_starko]

Revit materials should eventally reflect real world materials, down to the chemical composition. The periodic table of elements is the one truely universal standard we have to describe materials.........


when I read this, tea started to come out of my nose in a pri-emptive fit of laughter as I thought you were going to suggest that materials in revit be based on the actuall molecules that would represent the item in real life ! haha

I to think this would be tough. reallyl tough to standardize for everyone..
maybe they have a north american version that follows the master format, and a european one and one for Asia ( or for what ever regions need to have their own standards.

it won't be until the times of Starfleet command and Enterprize that everyone works world wide with the same standards. imo

[cbaze]

It's not as far-fetched as you think. Check out table 41 of OmniClass by CSI. A lot of common building materials are made of up only a handful of elements. Steel for example is iron and carbon. The more carbon, the stronger the steel. Add chromium for stainless steel.

[mccurdyks]

pmccord: This is a great little piece of work! Beats the pants off of the file I've been stitching together over the years. Thanks!

To the Aaron's: What percentage of your time to spend on this stuff? Do you do all the management in-house, creating the formatting, etc? Or is this something you have someone outside handle?

I'm really curious how others deal with the typical "being given no time to deal with standards until there's a problem" issue. I'm finding when I have to pass something off, suddenly there's a chunk of time and money assigned to it; if it's something I'm trying to deal with myself, it's just time away from billable hours on a project and not worth doing to those who make the decision. I would love to get to the level of organization both of you seem to have, not just with materials but everything.

Kevin

[twiceroadsfool]

It either gets done minute by minute, and takes a very long time, or you start from scratch, and dedicate some SERIOUS time to it for awhile. The last time i started an office on Revit from TOTAL ground zero (no template, no content, no installations, and office standards that needed to be revisited to see where revit could accomodate and where it couldnt, which led to heading the route of NCS compliance), it was roughly 3 months full time, until i had a template and a content library i felt good about turning people loose with.

That said, you can start with the OOTB stuff, and do it as you go, but yeah. You get pulled off your proejct and work late nights when you realize the OOTB doors suck.

[mccurdyks]

Stupid question of the day:

NCS compliance???

National CAD Standards - Got it!

[travismv702230]

Hadens I might be misunderstanding what you want, but I set up a material library for our office with a naming system. Our naming system goes by section, material and then pattern. i.e. Masonry-Brick-Running or Masonry-CMU-Standard. In order to communicate all of our materials I created a drawing with all the materials set up as fill patterns and printed it out. We are very new to this and have not created these in a material list, I'm thinking that will happen as we move along, but I will pass along the drawings with the fill patterns, maybe it will be helpful to you.

The drawing is broken down into drafting views by drafting patterns and model patterns. The information to the side of the fill patterns is: Material (what it is), Fill Pattern (what it should be named in the material list), Pattern Name (the name Revit or AutoCadd gave it), Location (the file that it came from) and sometimes Import Scale (the scale to set it when you bring it in).

Hope it helps.

Where is Revit's standard location for the fill pattern files? In the directory? The attached Revit file had a path but it was 2008. Was that company specific? Where does Autodesk put it???

Thanks!

[twiceroadsfool]

Fill patterns in Revit arent referenced, they get imported. Once theyre brought in from the .pat file, they dont reference it anymore. Hence, there is no location for .pat files.

[travismv702230]

Fill patterns in Revit arent referenced, they get imported. Once theyre brought in from the .pat file, they dont reference it anymore. Hence, there is no location for .pat files.

thanks. I found the location of the .pat file but all of the patterns are located in that file. but, this is good to know!

[Moke]

Dear pmccord

Your fill patterns file was incredibly useful. Very glad I found it, thanks!

[rbcameron1]

Nice, lots of choices/options!